ice cream series: rosemary with salted maple caramel sauce

What better way to start the new year than with a recipe that goes against everything you are meant to do in January… Sugar? Check. Cream? Check. Syrup? Check, check and check. The rosemary flavour is subtle and feels a bit fancy – and the sauce, well I could drink the sauce on it’s own for days. Here’s how to do it.

Inspired by David Lebovitz’s vanilla recipe. Heat the milk, rosemary and sugar in a small pan over a medium heat. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and don’t let it boil. Once dissolved, cover and put aside for one to two hours. This will infuse the rosemary flavour into the milk.

Once your milk has infused, rewarm it slightly. Lightly mix the egg yolks together in a mixing bowl and then slowly pour in the milk mixture, keep stirring. Put it all back into the saucepan over a medium heat, always stirring. Don’t let it boil! The mixture will thicken slowly, once you have reached a custard-like consistency take it off the heat.

Pour the cream and vanilla essence into a large bowl and whip lightly. It should still be liquid and not stiffened, it just helps with the consistency of the ice cream to aerate it. Pour the custard mixture through a strainer into the cream and mix with a wooden spoon until fully combined. Chill this in the fridge, until thoroughly cooled, then churn in your ice cream maker.
Makes approx 1 litre.

For the sauce…

Have all of your ingredients prepared and to hand as you will need to move quickly on this one. Cook the sugar and maple syrup in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat until the sugar is thoroughly dissolved and getting darker in colour. It is a bit tricky to tell when this part is done, as using brown sugar means the mixture is already fairly dark. I just went by sight and smell. Try not to stir it too much once the sugar has dissolved, swishing the pan around is better. Once you’ve reached the perfect ‘caramelly’ state (I chose to do mine fairly dark), quickly add the butter chunks while constantly whisking. The butter will bubble and spit, so be careful and remember to protect your hands. Remove from the heat and pour in the cream, keep whisking! The cream will also spit. Once mixed, add salt flakes to taste. Store the sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. Best to leave it out to warm and soften before drizzling.

Makes approx 200 ml, which is enough to go with the 1 litre of ice cream, and also a spoon every time you walk past the fridge.
This sauce is so delish you may want to marry it and have its salted gooey babies. Just saying.

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6 Comments

Ohh I know this would be delicious – an organic cafe nearby does a salt and rosemary cake, I was skeptical at first but it is so delicious! Such a good combo when you add in that magic sugar element too 😛